Fueled by the current societal emphasis on individuality, today's fashion industry is marked by a growing demand for unique, personalized or designer goods. Regardless of the demand for such goods, present economic realities prevent most consumers from acquiring these typically expensive luxuries. Consumers have shied away from the costly designer clothes market and have turned to the practice of being more creative with the clothes they already own.
The children's clothing industry has not been isolated from current trends. Somewhat more pronounced than as seen in adults, today's children are characterized by a heightened fashion self-consciousness. In this light, increasingly greater demands are being made for articles of apparel that are unique or personal. However, due to the costs involved, and often exacerbated by the inherent fickleness of children, parents are often unwilling or unable to purchase new articles of clothing on the demands of their children every time an old article of clothing goes out of style.
Prior patents have disclosed garments having removable ornamentations. Nonetheless, these past patents have had several shortcomings.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,484,974 (Culmone), there is disclosed a garment with an elongated flexible strip having fine loops on its outer surface upon which may be attached removable identifying characters. The characters have a plurality of hooking elements on their rear surface which detachably engage the loops of the strip, so that characters were removably secured to the shirt. The primary problem with the Culmone patent is that, as disclosed, the ornaments, i.e. the characters, were not directly coupled to the garment, i.e. the shirt. Instead, the ornaments were replaceably attached to an intermediary strip, and the intermediary strip was permanently attached to the garment. In this light, the problem is clear. The intermediary strip formed a layer sitting atop the garment layer that would be unsightly unless coupled with ornamentation. Without such ornamentation, the garment would be seen as having an indistinct, seemingly purposeless, strip across its torso. Such a limitation is inconsistent with the goals of the present invention.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,249,268 (Berler), there is disclosed a garment consisting essentially of sections of a fabric having a plurality of loop elements on its outer surface upon which ornaments may be removably attached and strips of stretchable fabric joining the various sections of the looped fabric. The garment includes a neck opening adapted for insertion of a wearer's head when the garment is donned, and a portion surrounding the neck opening is formed of a stretchable fabric to permit the wearer's head to pass through the neck opening in the case when the neck opening is smaller than the wearer's head.
Although the Berler patent overcomes the limitations of the Culmone patent by providing a garment wherein the ornaments are directly attached to the garment itself, Berler nevertheless retains other significant limitations. The problem with the Berler patent derives principally from two interrelated factors. First, the looped material upon which ornaments are attached is made of an inelastic material. Second, due to the inelasticity of the looped material, the garment had to be made by dual incorporation of another elastic material in order for the garment to be easily and comfortably put on and worn. The end result was a garment that was not only inelastic in certain areas but was also heterogeneously made of two different materials each having different properties. Apart from aesthetic problems, the heterogeneity of the garment results in certain practical problems. First, since two materials were used, manufacture of the garment was relatively more difficult. Not only is more stitching required to manufacture the garment, but moreover, due to their different properties, a certain degree of dimensional stabilization of the materials was inherently required to prevent one material from shrinking or wearing faster than the other. Additionally, the relatively greater number of seams also decreases the strength of the garment as a whole. Second, since two materials were used, only one of which could be coupled with ornamentation, the consumer's freedom in positioning ornaments was restricted only to certain areas. As with the Culmone patent, the limitations of the Berler patent are incompatible with the goals of the present invention.